Although fortune-telling by means of liver, after a sacrifice, was a usual practice in antiquity, in order to foresee the outcome of a coming confrontation, the relevant representations are rare. The statuette imitates in miniature scale monumental statues of generals of the Epirote League, fragments of which have been found in the sanctuary of Dodona. The prophetic liver in the right hand of the man led to the identification of the figure with the philosopher Kineus, an adviser to Pyrrhus, king of Epirus.